House Republicans Seek Testimony From Biden Officials on COVID-19 Origins, Wuhan Lab Research

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), flanked by House Republicans, speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Nov. 17, 2022. Alex Wong/Getty Images

House Republicans will seek documents and testimony from 40 individuals, including Biden administration officials and scientists, on the origins of COVID-19 and the U.S. funding of research that was conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Announcing the move on Dec. 14 in a joint statement, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, said getting to the source of the pandemic was vital to ensuring accountability and preventing the situation from ever occurring again.

“The American people deserve the facts and the truth about the origins of COVID-19,” Jordan said.

“COVID-19 disrupted our lives and livelihoods for over two years: kids couldn’t go to school, small businesses and churches were closed, our economy tanked, and our freedoms were restricted. If we had known the truth about the virus’s origins, we could have combatted the virus in a more meaningful way at the outset of the pandemic.

“It is our Constitutional duty to conduct oversight and thoroughly examine the facts so this type of gain-of-function research and bad behavior never happens again.”

‘Mounting Evidence’

According to the congressmen, “mounting evidence” indicates that COVID-19 originated from a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology—a theory that Dr. Anthony Fauci, senior medical adviser to President Joe Biden and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), has downplayed since the start of the pandemic.

For instance, in one email exchange from April 2020, Fauci told then-National Institutes of Health (NIH) director Francis Collins that the theory was “a shiny object” that would eventually go away.

However, a State Department memo from April 2020 that was released earlier this year revealed that government officials knew at that time that the virus had most likely originated at the Wuhan lab.

As recently as Oct. 4, Fauci described the lab leak theory as one supported by “no evidence whatsoever”—a remark he made while defending the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) continued funding of EcoHealth Alliance. The New York-based nonprofit had previously directed NIH grant money toward the Wuhan Institute of Virology for what some experts described as gain-of-function research.

Comer, in his Wednesday statement, noted: “EcoHealth Alliance, a U.S. National Institutes of Health grantee, passed taxpayer funds to the Wuhan lab to conduct gain of function research on bat coronaviruses—research that may have started the pandemic. Dr. Fauci was warned early on that the virus appeared man made and pointed to a lab leak and instead of blowing the whistle may have attempted to cover it up.”

Seeking Answers

In a Dec. 13 letter (pdf) to Fauci, Comer and Jordan noted that they had sent “numerous letters” to NIAID, NIH, and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), but their requests had either been ignored or received “insufficient” responses.

“Because you and your agency have been at the center of the pandemic response since its inception, your documents and testimony are essential to informing the Committee about what the U.S. government knew regarding the origins of COVID-19 and when the government knew it,” they wrote.

“To assist the Committee with its investigation of the origins of COVID-19, the CCP’s [Chinese Communist Party’s] efforts to cover it up, and all related national security risks, we request that you preserve all documents and communications related to SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and related scientific research, including any documents and communications in your custody or control.”

Additionally, the letter notified Fauci that the House would require his testimony in the form of a transcribed interview.

The list of individuals the congressmen requested communications, documents, and testimony from spans officials in the Biden administration, the EcoHealth Alliance, and other prominent virologists who investigated the origins of the virus and concluded that the lab leak theory was false. Noteworthy names include those of HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, National Intelligence Director Avril Haines, and Collins, the former NIH director who now serves as acting science adviser to the president.

The Epoch Times has reached out to Fauci, NIH, NIAID, HHS, and EcoHealth for comment.